Hard West 2

Hard West 2 is a pretty good game and unusually accurately named. Like one or more other recently, it's a Western-with-supernatural game. It uses an action point turn-based tactical combat system with an overworld map scattered with some narrative events. The setting isn't remarkably unique, but the game works well. And it struggles with itself some, too.

The companions you pick up all have a loyalty meter - not that they leave you, but unlocking tiers on the meter usually unlocks a certain minor bonus, a small bit of backstory dialog for them, and some map events are locked behind (or made easier/cheaper by) a companion's certain level of loyalty. Loyalty is often gained by map event choices as well - typically, you can favor one of two companions, increasing the chosen one's loyalty by one point. So, over the course of the game, you cannot cap loyalty on every companion, for better or worse. And in combat, you only bring four of your six total companions into a mission, though a few require one specific person. Fine enough system, but there are some odd interactions.

Another notable system is the cards. As you go through the game, you collect poker cards (9-ace of four suits, plus two jokers). Some are from story missions, some from side activities. Each card grants a bonus depending on suit (ie. one suit boosts speed, another HP). Assembling a poker hand unlocks/upgrades a character's special abilities and may grant further bonuses, with a hand unlocking everything an inferior hand would as well. This is where most of the sense of advancement comes. You do get access to weapons that deal a point or two more damage over the game, but the cards are the things that give more notable boosts in movement and special ability upgrades. But when you start, you're hoping to get a pair on a couple characters. By the end, you have more flexibility, but some odd things come up. You could outfit your four active characters with royal flushes, which would unlock all their abilities, but it would mean each only has a single type of stat boost (one person has all the +HP cards, another has all the +speed cards, etc.). Or you can go for a more even stat spread with only four-of-a-kind hands. With the jokers, you can actually manage five-of-a-kind, which is the best, but the jokers are missable. One is locked behind an event choice that is counter to what the game has been teaching (that usually using a companion to take action in an event is good) and another is locked behind a late-game event that requires max loyalty with a specific companion. So... kinda cool idea, but difficult to optimize without advanced knowledge.

Combat is a little like that too. The middle difficulty, "hard," kind of is - at least until you know what's going to happen. There are some triggers in some fights that can screw an exposed party if you don't time it right. Probably a third or more of the missions have turn limit timers. There's no in-combat "resurrection" and healing is limited. The best part, however, is the bravado system - when a character scores a kill, they get all three action points back. So the game becomes a little bit puzzle-like as careful setup and usage of the team can lead to a chain of kills wiping out an entire group in a couple turns. You'll need that in order to take on the sheer quantities of enemies, some of which have some really irksome abilities (like summoning and life draining). The combats were generally tactically fun for me, but some required multiple reloads and some really just felt like they went on too long.

The story is nothing stellar, but works well enough and leaves room for follow-up. I would say the third chapter in particular felt a little short and things should have been fleshed out a bit more.